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Week 2 Wrap-Up: CS:GO ANZ Invitational

Week 2 Wrap-Up: CS:GO ANZ Invitational

The LPL PRO CS:GO ANZ Invitational continued on from it’s opening success, continuing to bring in thousands of viewers across Twitch and SKY SPORT to watch the best CS:GO teams in ANZ face-off in the first episode of the tournament. This week also housed the tournament’s first Carl’s Jr. unlocked deals! Let’s take a look at how our three matches played out.

Game 1

The first game of the night featured the Chiefs Esports Club, looking to add a second win after last week’s comeback victory over Breakaway Esports. They took on Legacy Esports – who’d also produced their own come-from-behind win against Ground Zero. With the recent changes to the game economy, it would be interesting to see how the teams adapted.

Legacy won the pistol round on T side, but the Chiefs claimed the next three. A fantastic 4k halted the Chiefs’ rampage and Legacy responded with three rounds of their own. It was destined to be a slugfest as both teams traded rounds, with neither actually creating an advantage. This was working in Legacy’s favour as Nuke was definitely favoured towards CT and the closeness would make it a whole lot easier to close out a win.

Chiefs decided to make a run for it and secured five rounds in a row, almost taking a sixth as Infrequent attempted a sneaky bomb defuse before soju dispatched him. Leading 9-5 going into the final round of the first half, a clutch final play from Infrequent gave them the last round. Chiefs equalised the pistol round count as they took their own and start to stack pressure on Legacy.

A strong 3k from Lacore once against held up the Chiefs, but it was only the single round consolation as a brilliant call from the boys in blue to run through the vents and take the round to lead 13-6. The back and forth was on again as Legacy took two rounds, and a fantastic collateral from BL1TZ took down Texta and Infrequent helped Legacy take another two to tighten the score 13-10. Chiefs pulled off two more brilliant rounds to place themselves on match point, which they wasted no time in taking to beat out Legacy 16-10 in an extremely entertaining match.

Game 2

Breakaway were hungry for a win after letting last week’s game slip away from them, but it would be a hard ask against Tainted Minds who’d commandingly taken down Grayhound Gaming. On Inferno, the New Zealand team drew first blood as Llamas picked up a 3k. Two more went Breakaway’s way before clawed one back, but it was once again Llamas who clutched out a round to give Breakaway a 4-1 lead.

Tainted Minds took three rounds after Breakaway claimed their fifth, and with the economy in the favour of TM it was going to be hard for Breakaway to keep the run going, but it didn’t stop them as they took a sixth after forcing Sico and ap0c to retreat and save their weapons. They swiftly took two more before trading a round each with solid play from both teams to bring the score to 9-5 in Breakaway’s favour.

However, the pressure was now on Breakaway, as Tainted Minds were three down at the changeover and took 8 in a row to lead 14-9 with the game firmly in their control. A clutch start from Breakaway forced Sico to retreat and gave them their tenth round, and Tainted Minds had to withstand the onslaught as the New Zealanders pushed the scoreline to 13-14, including a fantastic ace from j1rah to give all the Kiwi fans their free Carl’s Jr. The Australians’ experience shone true as they calmly took the final two rounds for a strong 16-13 victory.

Game 3

The final game of the day seemed like a mismatch at the start, as it was Oceania’s most dominant team in Grayhound Gaming, hungry for a win after going down to Tainted Minds last week, going up against the wildcards Ground Zero. And for the first few rounds, it definitely was as Grayhound won the pistol round and then another seven in a row to really heap pressure on GZ.

Although it looked dire, Ground Zero secured their first round after an incredible play from xtinct to attempt to claw their way back into this match. They traded maps back and forward, with Grayhound now only leading 12-3 as the first half ended, with malta knife-killing NikkeZ at the death to again give everyone free food. It was still a commanding lead, but there was no flawless victory to be seen tonight.

Ground Zero started off the second half strong, taking the pistol round and the next to potentially start a comeback run, but it was Grayhound who ran in the remainder of the rounds to take out the victory 16-5. Once again, it was experience that secured the win and Grayhound move to 1-1 in the standings.